Episode 182 – New Markets for Artists / Kickstarter.com

The fundraising platform Kickstarter has resulted in the most success stories for artists launching projects and shows independently. With Kickstarter’s help, artists can propose anything from a book to a film to an album, and seek funding for their project. My own story is detailed later in this book, but to summarize here, the project I proposed was to make a museum. My wife and I created what we called a Non-Visible Museum and sold imaginary artworks. That’s right! The owner would receive a card with the description of the work on it. I raised that money in just ninety days, and we sold over $16,000 worth of non-visible art! I describe this process in great detail in chapter 14, but it goes to show how useful Kickstarter can be for raising money in a short period of time.

Another Kickstarter project that was very successful was called the Regretsy Tarot, which was created by a groupof international artists who got together by email. Each one of them made a few Tarot card designs for a deck to be printed. They sold the decks in advance on Kickstarter so that they could pay to print them. They only needed $4,000 dollars, but they sold out of all the decks and raised over $23,000 before even printing them! The success of that project also derived from its collaborative appeal and greater outreach because more than one artist was involved, bringing in more circles of friends. Research “Regresty” and “Non-Visble Museum” on Kickstarter and you will see both archived there.

Let’s Go Already

Now you should be ready to dive in to the world of social media! If you are a total beginner, then turn to the next chapter, where I lead you through the very first steps to setting up a new account (and a new beginning). If you are already a Facebook or Twitter user, then skip to chapter 3, where passwords are discussed in a chapter that will serve as the foundation for everything you do online. Nothing is safe online unless you put security first!